It’s started. It’s not even Thanksgiving as I write this, and yet I am already listening to Christmas hymns and carols and I have already begun to get out the Christmas decorations. Just a few, of course – I try to wait until after Thanksgiving, but when a new nativity I had ordered from a catalog arrived the other day, it seemed a shame to box it back up for just a few weeks, so out on the table it went, ready for the season.
I am not sure who sprints out of the gate earlier: me or the stores in the mall. I love everything about Christmas: the lights, the scents, the sparkle of tinsel, the greenery, the ornaments, children filled with excitement, the carols, the sense of wonder. I am always eager to step over the threshold that leads into the wonderful room we call December as we await the coming of our Lord.
Yes, the season brings with it a rush of activities; it is certainly the busiest month at the church. Still, the season brings with it a sense of peace that falls so gently upon us, like snowflakes drifting down touching us, filling us, stopping us even for moment in the midst of the crush, calling us to pause, to remember, to wait. The peace reminds us, as the composer John Rutter wrote in one of his beautiful hymns, that love came down from heaven on that first Christmas Day.
But even as I look forward to Advent and Christmas, I am also already looking ahead to the New Year, as we begin our 141st year. Our Session and Board of Deacons will begin the new year together with their annual retreat at Massanetta Springs, where we will continue working on what it means to be leaders in the church, work we began last spring. Our Book of Order reminds us that Elders are called to lead us “continually to discover what God is doing in the world and to plan for change, renewal and reformation under the Word of God.” It is exciting and challenging work, as we seek to discern the will of God as we follow Jesus.
We will take the wonder, the glory, the peace, and the Spirit of the Christmas season into the New Year, as we should. The Spirit of Christmas should fill us all year round, for the Spirit of Christmas is, after all, the Spirit of Christ. My hope and my prayer is that the Spirit will blaze in your hearts throughout the Season and throughout the year ahead.
Glory to God in Highest Heaven!
Pastor Skip
